Tomorrow Night's game between Ireland and Australia in the womens soccer world cup, I'd expect Australia will win 4-0/ 4-1.

Commonwealth Games

I think the best idea for the Commonwealth Games would be to have them each 4 years in the same country, a member of the Commonwealth, that is a developing Nation.

Each Commonwealth country could put in some money every 4 years to keep it afloat and to contribute to the development of the country, health services, education, agriculture, technology, and also help keep the Commonwealth kicking along, as it is a useful thing.

You could put limits on it, say, for a twenty year period, then it would go to another developing host Commonwealth Nation.

Would help a lot with Nation Building and all the connections between people.

Victoria cancelling the Commonwealth Games

I like the Victorian Premier, Daniel Andrews. He makes good decisions, and if its a bad decision, he changes it.

The impact of the severe Covid lockdowns in Victoria = thousands, or tens of thousands, of people lived, people who would not have lived otherwise. Good decision. That's a good human government. It did a really, really hard thing.

Now, with him cancelling the Commonwealth Games in the State, well, that's very wise.

Very expensive and blowing out in costs as all things do, with the State, like the rest of Australia, proceeding into a world recession this year. Don't waste the billions of money on a sport games publicity show that will last 12 days. Save that money. We will need it. That's responsible government.

That's a good idea. That makes sense. Well decided, Mr Andrews. Stay the course.

Cluster Bombs for the Ukraine?

Wednesday, Washing Day, and the clothes are on the line, as ordained in the Holy Scripts of Yore and Elders.
I saw the common blackbird this morning, tooling about in the garden. So, good to see.

As I was hanging out the washing I thought about The Ukraine getting a lot of cluster bombs from the USA.

Now, Cluster Bombs are really awful things, hundreds of little bomblets, many of which go off, and many don't. Many just lie there for ten, 20 years waiting for a child to step on them, then Boom! No legs!...as still happens every day now in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, from the bad old days of American penetrative imperialism.

Cluster Bombs are a real Cluster Fuck that defines true hatred for an enemy, and their children, in a very real and abiding way. You can't just go and pick up the ones that don't go off. Why? Because then they go off!

Odd that the Ukrainian President, our Hero, will be dropping them on the Ukraine, itself, his own beloved countryside, and his very own loved peoples, but only where the Russian soldiers and the Ukrainian Folk who like Russia, who live there as the Majority. All those troublesome Eastern Provinces he's been trying to neutralise and effectively 'sterilise' for many years.

Kind of shows the true Mettle of the Man... who is beginning to make Mr Putin look like a bit of a humanitarian in comparison.

Dropping cluster bombs on your own people, even if those folk don't really like you, is not a good idea. That blood and shattered bone in the present and in the generations to come, doesn't come out in the wash. That's a real War Crime. That's a real and hateful Cunt Act.

2023 Womens World Cup Football, friendly game, Australia versus France

Womens World Cup, Friendly, France V Australia.

Result: Aus 1 Fra 0.

An interesting preliminary game, without much risk. Both teams do and can play very well, and true, it is good to see that the Aus finishing side, at 90 minutes, was competent.

The concern with Australia is that the strength is in the attack, with great strikers, and with a semi-okay defensive line, with Polkinghome being the linch-pin for the defence. Putting pressure on that defence, and somehow taking out Polkinghome would leave Aus quite vulnerable to an assertive, attacking opposition. They'd have to contain Kerr and the other 2 Aus strikers, for sure, which will always be a hell of a task.

Australia should do well. I expect an advance from Number 10 to about 6 for Aus after this competition. Will they win the world cup? Unlike the men's game, yes, they could. The US, the UK, Netherlands ...these are very serious teams and brilliant players. They are both very excellent and skilled athletes and very hungry driven and very talented individuals.

Melbourne Chinatown

So, the other night in Chinatown, due to my Mental Health Eyes...always assessing, even though now clouded in a nice way with soft glaucoma, keeping eye contact, always, I met a few really dodgy folk in alleys...and gave them cigarettes. One of them remembered me from work. I didn't remember her. Not much of a memory I guess.

They used to be in asylums. Streets are better.

I used to, in my former life, in end-stage palliative care, walk about noting who was about to die in the street, on trams, in offices, drinking cappucinos, eating healthy buns, getting off buses etc; You can pick em pretty easily, if you've had the right background training over the many years. There's no mystery. There's a real guaranteed trajectory there.

Don't worry, there's no conflict, never any conflict, people just don't want to know anyway. What good would that do? Just let it be, and stand clear and get out of the way of the paramedics.

I try not to do that anymore.

Its a drag.

Mental Health is much more fun.

Everyone is kinda still living for a little while.

It feels a lot better on a cold night.

War and Peace

War and Peace

Whatever side we are on, when it comes to Russia and the Ukraine, it really doesn't matter. The economics of the world are not permanently changed by the conflict, but rather all the economies related to Europe will suffer a lot, by the sanctions regarding Russian Oil and Gas, and I expect that will go on for the next decade...thus a deep world recession. Lots of crashing European governments, for sure. Look at France now.

But not any great or big war.

The only place a World War could happen would be in the Korean Peninsula...with North Korea the most expensive piece of land on earth. North Korea has the Position, Position, Position every real estate agent dreams of.

It butts onto South Korea, China, and Russia....is close to Japan...and between those combined economies rests the world economy itself...and North Korea does have massive natural wealth and huge totally untapped natural resources, and it has enormous military power, and it has a very disciplined and highly tech-educated, and obedient, population.

In any conflict by the USA, the first army to arrive in PyongYang would be China's Red Army, then Russia's Army, then the American Army, and what a great stand-off between the Powers that would be! But it won't happen. North Korea is far too important to all the world.

Its a war none of them could win, except China, really. Yet it is the only place on earth that a conflict that fundamentally involved all of us, everywhere, could possibly happen. It is the one Geo-Political 'moving tectonic plate' in our whole world.

I know North Korea is the worst Government on Earth, and then comes our friends, Saudi Arabia, for sure, and the Middle East, well, its not what it used to be in terms of being greatly important anymore, but North Korea has got it all... but...as long as the status quo remains the status quo, we are all saved from a World War by the continuity of the bizarre Kim regime, in a way. That regime, unfortunately for the North Korean folk, has all the hallmarks of lasting a very, very long time, indeed. Longer than any of us alive will be alive.

Still, peace is, indeed, peace...and we have it now...so don't worry so much, especially about China. China does not make war. We and our friends make war. China has learned how not to. We haven't.

That China knows how to do well and not make war is not a failing of theirs, its a triumph of the human spirit and brilliant planning over a horrible history of ours.